Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Songwriting Commission (Part One)

One of the fun side effects of the You Have Not Seen project is that I got a songwriting job out of it. One of the kickstarter rewards for a more substantial contribution was a commissioned song. When I say "commission" this is what I mean by it:

1.  I interview the subject (either about themselves, someone close to them like in the case of a song that's a gift for someone, or about a specific relationship or location). I ask a lot of questions and do a lot of listening.

2. I take what I hear and learn and I write a song. It's not meant to be an exact portrait of the person or place -- rather an impressionist sketch or story that takes flight from the facts, memories and perspectives of that person -- mixed with my own thoughts, prayer, reflections. 

I've done a number of these over the years, and it's been great to see what comes of them. I'll reflect more about them in part two.




Thursday, October 17, 2013

One lonely post

I posted like mad in the month gearing up to the big art show and now things have gone strangely quiet  on this blog . . . for several weeks. This was not because the show went badly and I didn't want to write about it. The opposite is true (great song by Bill Mallonee btw) -- it was so good it was hard to know where to start. So this is one lonely post where I begin telling you what happened at the You Have Not Seen art installation at Bluffton University:

Let's start with this picture. It was taken by Susan Spurgin who visited the show part way through the month, one of many viewers who had the privilege of having the gallery all to themselves for a bit (the reception was something else altogether, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

The first really important thing about this show was the work itself. It was captivating, cohesive, varied, interesting, and restful all at once. It was amazing to see people walk into the room and react in different ways to the art and the space. The art enveloped you and invited you somewhere different.

A number of people spent hours in the gallery looking, soaking.

This alone made all the work worth it, but it's just the beginning of what happened...